Anything but easy
by Ketojan
Summary: In the Cajun Wasteland, Mercenary; Sergent Raine Montoya stumbles across a town named 'Thorne.' It's people are in a dire situation, Raiders are promising to destroy the town, if they don't pay them a tribute and if that's not bad enough, a stranger walked into town and murdered the Sherrif, and now resides inside the town's barn. Will peace be achieveable? Can Thorne be saved?


" _The Big Easy..._

 _Nothin' easy about it..."_

Raine's canteen was slowly lifted up as she tipped it upside down, shaking it to try and find some source of water inside. Needless to say, she was disappointed...

She sighed heavily and shook her head, putting the canteen back on her belt as she did so before shaking her head and walking along. Leather armour and heat did **not** mix and if she wasn't at risk of being jumped by Gators, she'd gladly take it off and swap it for something with a little more air in it.

Raine shook her head and continued along, seeming somewhat irritated by her situation. She needed a drink, not water, like the kind of drink that made her throat burn. Christ, she wished that she was back in Paris, perched on a bar stool, getting as drunk as she pleased. Too bad the caps didn't last forever...

She drew a make-up mirror from her back pocket, not to apply make-up, god no, she just needed to see her face. She usually used it to peer around corners or to check to make sure that she hadn't gone ghoul yet, fortunately, she hadn't.

The Mercenary took a gander at her face, seeing a green eyed woman with rather unlady like hair staring back at her. She had half of her head shaved, mostly to keep the creatures of the swamp from grabbing it. Long hair was pretty but it was like Velcro to Ferals and anything else with hands that grab. That and... in her line of work, 'pretty' drew unwanted attention. Best to look the part, to have a hair style that said, 'don't fuck with me.'

As she examined her face, she noticed that the gash on her cheek was still bleeding, prompting her to sigh heavily and pocket the mirror again. It looked like it was going to scar, something that she wasn't exactly fond of...

Sure scars looked cool, maybe even intimidating but they made you a lot easier to identify, this was **not** a good thing... She needed to be ambiguous, or at least as ambiguous as a lone, almost bald woman could be out on the road...

Damn Nightdogs, someone needs to come out here and cull them one day, someone with a minigun and a lot of time on their hands...

She broke away from her train of thought and looked up, expecting to see birds, maybe signs of life in the distance... Though she was surprised to see smoke, slowly rising from behind the trees in front of her. With a furrowed brow, Raine stepped forward, readying her weapon, she expected a snatcher camp out here, though there were small towns consisting of swamp folk... Well, Swamp Folk or Riverfolk. There was a difference, though she didn't care for either of them.

She drew her Caravan shotgun, getting it at the ready, it wasn't the best weapon for Ammo capacity but boy did it pack a punch, it was enough to knock a Hopper flat on it's ass. Not that she'd waste bullets on those things...

As she stepped through the burnt out trees, she heard a brittle twig snap to her right, Raine quickly spun, 90 degrees to her right and pulled the trigger, blasting at the direction where it came from. The shot shattered the trunk of a tree, sending splinters flying everywhere and leaving a large, gaping wound in the tree's corpse...

Besides the tree stood a man in Riverfolk settler clothes, a tattered looking shirt with overalls on, one of the braces had been torn and half of his overalls were hanging loose.

"Argh! Don't shoot me!" The man spluttered, getting into crash position, as if he his hands could shield bullets. Raine's eyes narrowed as she saw him, slowly aligning her sites on him.

"What're you doing out here!?" She called, ready to blow the stupid asshole away if he tried anything.

"S-Scouting! Th-Thought you were a Snatcher, they been skulkin' around here!"

"Well I ain't..." Raine assured him, keeping her sites on him.

"I-I can see that, you're too well equipped and you don't look as crazy... m-ma'am."

"I'm plenty crazy, crazy enough to help you deal with your little snatcher problem, so long as the caps are good. Just how much is it worth to you, huh?"

She then paused, rolling her eyes as she lowered her gun, sighing heavily.

"And lower your hands, you look ridiculous!"

This got the man to throw his hands down to his side as he stood up, shuddering a little as he did so.

"Yes ma'am, sorry ma'am!"

"And don't call me **'Ma'am** ' or I'll blow your leg off!"

"Right... Erm... Okay I... D-Don't know what to call you, miss..."

"Montoya, Raine Montoya or Sargent Montoya, if you prefer that. You got a name, jumpy?"

"R-Rupert, Sarge. I'm... From Thorne."

"That your... town?"

"Yes, M-Sarge."

"Mind taking me there, so that we can talk business?"

"Oh, I... absolutely." Rupert said, looking around somewhat fearfully.

"Please, follow me." He added, ducking down under the foliage as he paced through, getting 'Sargent Montoya' to follow behind...

The two of them arrived in Thorne, not long after. There, Montoya was greeted to a small, post war town, built up of shacks made out of various materials. Sheet metal, wood, etc... None of them looked particularly sturdy but the rust on them suggested that they had been there some time.

Rupert slowly lead her through the town, where she was forced to walk through a small pond of judgemental and fearful eyes. Everyone looked at her, showing signs of fear, given that they were expecting Snatcher attacks any day now, she guessed that she could understand...

The Village Idiot lead her through to a shack on the other side of town, it was labelled 'Sheriff' rather clumsily. Raine shook her head as she passed the sign and stepped inside, where the two of them quickly came face to face with a young, rather frustrated looking man, who sat at his desk with his head in his hands. It looked like the Snatcher problem was going great.

"Joel?" Rupert asked, nervously clearing his throat as he approached the young man's desk, with a sigh.

"We erm... Have a visitor..."

'Joel' looked up, his tired eyes fell on the Mercenary as his already tired face seemed to grow a few wrinkles and bags, it was obvious that he was dreading this meeting...

"Howdy Ma'am." He said, slowly rising up to his feet, he had quite long hair, that was greasy, probably due to the heat at the moment. He also had a moustache, that **really** didn't suit him. It looked like a porn star's tache and it was rather obvious that he was trying it out. In Raine's humble opinion, he looked way too young to be sporting a tache, even though he was around 24 or 25...

"She don't like to be called 'Ma'am.'" Rupert warned him, in a hushed whisper, this almost amused Raine but amusement rarely happened for her.

"She's a sergeant, soldier type for hire."

"A Mercinary?" Joel said, raising his eyebrow.

"Hmm... Well, in that case, I welcome you to our humble little Gator turd of a town, I'm Joel, the Sheriff's deputy."

"Deputy?" Raine asked, folding her arms, narrowing her eyes.

"I want the Sheriff..."

"Sure, he's by the chapel if you want to pay your respects but if you wanna talk business? I'm right here." He said, taking a seat in his pipe chair and collapsing against it.

"Wait... The Sheriff is dead?" Raine asked, somewhat shocked.

"Doesn't that make **you** sheriff?"

The Deputy chuckled, shaking his head with a smile.

"No Ma'am, you seem to have Sheriffs confused with monarchies, the town has to decide who they elect to be sheriff. But... I guess you can call me the acting Sheriff and hell, it's not likely that there's going to be anyone else crazy enough to take this job, not with that whacko in the barn."

Raine noticed Rupert's face, a look of unease washed over him as the 'whacko' was mentioned, this caused Raine to grow suspicious.

"Whacko in the barn?"

"I-I think I'll be goin' now. Tators need tendin' to... It was nice meetin' you, Sarge." Ruper stammered, nervously, slowly shuffling out of the Sheriff's office, going back to his duties, prompting Joel to shake his head and slowly rise to his feet.

"He one of the Snatchers?" Raine asked, looking back to him, as soon as Rupert fell out of her line of sight.

Joel shrugged, though it was obvious that he was doubtful.

"Nah, well... He could be but somehow, I really doubt it. The guy walked in in Power Armour, these Snatchers are mostly rags and spittle, this guy was also pretty well armed, with a not too rustic pistol and he was also... Dunno, he seemed a bit like you, y'know... Smarter than those Snatchers or most threats.

"He isn't from here I take it? What's he doing here?"

"Fuck if I know, guy's a loon. A few days ago, he marches up to this town in his armour, we were all kinda relieved, thought he was Enclave at first, that he'd come to help us. Hell, the Sheriff walked up to him and offered him his hand and the fucker just gunned him down!

He took his gun, his journal and marched into the barn. Hasn't been out since..." Joel veered off to the left, looking a little more worried than frustrated at this point, sighing heavily.

"We keep... seeing lights, hearing grinding noises as well. He's using the workbench in there, that's a given but we have no idea what for. Probably to finish the rest of us off."

Raine nodded, pausing to think on it.

"Anyone tried to talk to him?"

"Fuck no, I ain't gonna risk that with Snatchers on our doorstep, I mean, I fuckin' hate this situation but at least he hasn't killed anyone else. I can't risk gettin' shot and I can't risk my people gettin' capped either, dig? So... I'm... Kinda just bidin' my time here, waitin' for them Snatchers to show up."

"Tell me about the Snatchers, what do they want?"

"Extortion, y'know... 'pay us money or accidents happen?' Thing is, they left us alone for a while, up until two weeks ago. Then they started threatening us, they told us that we owed them money for all the services they provided in the area, pest extermination and that and that we should be greatful.

Honestly, I think they're gettin' a bit big for their boots, they were pretty small time, up until recently. My guess is that they're just looking for a fight to pick or some easy money."

"What're their demands?"

"A thousand caps and half our food. We only have one Hopper, which we can't even reach right now, because of that asshole in the barn. Hell, part of me wants to give 'em what they want, so long as they take care of him but... I know we'll never be free of 'em, once we give in to their demands."

"Sounds like you've got two big problems... Big problems that need a professional to sort out. Good thing I happened by, huh?" Raine asked, giving him a knowing smirk.

"Yeah..." Joel said, leaning back against the wall with a suspicious glint in his eye.

"Rupert said you were a Sarge, like... a Sergeant? You Enclave? Vault Army?"

"Former Vault Army." She said, firmly.

"Let's leave it at that."

"Hell, fine by me. Man's past is his past, just... wanted to know who I was dealin' with." Joel assured her, trying not to aggravate her too much.

"Well, I'm one of few people in the Big Easy who's killed a Gator, **that** 's who you're dealin' with."

The Deputy's eyes widened, **no one** kills Gators, they either see them or turn up dead and people blame a Gator for the deed but no one **kills** one. She's either bullshitting or she's the real deal, either way, the Deputy was starting to like these odds.

"You... Shit, you ain't bullshittin' me?"

The Mercenary drew a scale from her back pocket, holding her hand out, Joel took it and examined it, not knowing if this was evidence as it could've come from a Scaletail for all he knew.

"Well, I guess I'll take your word for it. Still, Gators don't shoot back, at least I think they don't. So... You ready to take on an army?"

"I was born ready, point at it and it's dead. Question is, how much is that worth to you? You said that 1000 caps is a lot of money to you people, so... I'll offer my services to you for 500. Bare in mind though, I **am** taking care of two dangerous jobs at once. Guy in the barn **and** the Snatchers? I'd harge 250 caps for both of those jobs."

"Hmm... Look, I'm not gonna lie, we'd struggle to scrape up 1000 caps, that's the entire town's wealth, right there. 500 is the entire contents of our treasury, so... Look, how 'bout this instead. 400 caps and 100 caps worth of food and medical supplies, that fair?"

The Merc considered it, glancing away before nodding.

"You got yourself a deal, Deputy." She said, getting a smile from him as he extended his hand.

"Shake on it?"

Raine's eyes glanced down to Joel's hand as she reluctantly took hold of it and gave it a firm shake before quickly retrieving it. Somehow, she didn't trust handshakes, there were so many ways that you could be fucked over, through poison or through a knife or a gunshot to the stomach.

"Alright then." She said, folding her arms.

"Guess I'd better see our friend, at the barn..."

Raine approached the barn, shotgun in hand, she slid a shell into the barrel before snapping it shut and stepping on over to the door. Her foot came down hard on the base of the doorway, breaking it open. She immediately pointed her gun inside, aiming down the sites as she stepped inside.

She sharpened her eye as she entered the room, immediately hearing a noise to her right, that got her attention.

 _ **'Ribbet'**_

She quickly spun around, locking her barrel onto the source of the noise, immediately coming eye to eye with a very large and slimy creature that simply stared at her. It blinked once, staring with it's blank, dull expression before it's chest expanded again, like a large bubble.

 _ **'Ribbet'**_

Rained sighed heavily and lowered her gun, this must be the Hopper that Joel spoke of...

"Don't worry, he doesn't bite. He doesn't have the teeth for it." A voice said, followed by various clatterings, this got he to spin around, locking her weapon onto him.

" **You!** Hands where I can see them!"

"You can already see my hands, you can see me. The gun isn't necessary, since mine's over there." He said, gesturing to the table behind him, where a 9mm pistol lay, not even loaded.

"And the Sheriff's gun? You took that, right? You got that on you?"

The Man laughed faintly, shaking his head and causing his long hair to drag across his back as he turned around, showing her his face. He had quite a long beard, several scars around his eyes and one rather deep one across his hairline, he gave her a smile.

"You're a sharp one, yeah, I still have the Sheriff's gun." He said, drawing it from his coat pocket, a long, leather coat that was wrapped around a rather torn black jumper, which had a leather belt going across it with various pockets attached.

Raine stepped forward, poking her shotgun as she did so and shaking her head.

"Drop it!"

"Not necessary... If I was going to use it, I would've by now. I'm more interested as to why you're here though, you obviously aren't a townie. Too well equipped to be a Raider, so what's your deal?"

The Mercenary kept her weapon pointed at him, narrowing her eyes.

"I ought to just shoot you right now."

"Oh, that would be a **huge** mistake. Especially if you want to get the Snatchers off this town's back."

This got Raine to furrow her brow, looking somewhat even more angry.

"You with them?"

"What? No! Please, you insult me. I came into town to stop them." The Man shrugged, folding his arms and leaning back against the table workbench.

"Oh? Well, you're doing a good job so far! Shooting the sheriff!"

"Yep, that was a pretty good spot on my part, I have to admit. Haven't had to do detective work like that in a while..."

Raine's gaze turned into a different kind of suspicion as she jerked her head back, narrowing her eyes.

"What'd-you mean?"

"The Sheriff? He'd sold out the town, saw it immediately as I walked in."

"What? H-How?"

"Well, he tried to shake my hand, I looked down at it and noticed his fingers. Flaky, cut up and the nails were raw, like he'd been constantly chewing that them. He was nervous..."

"Yeah? Well anyone would be with Snatchers breathing down their necks, you shot him for being nervous?"

"Yep, I'm on a crusade against anxiety, a nervous sheriff is just bad news, y'know? Had to set an example."

"Very funny asshole..." Raine grumbled, creasing her brow.

"Bet his wife's finding it hilarious."

"Bet she is, considering that he was going to ditch her and the town and leave them all to the Snatchers." The Wastelander shrugged, tossing Raine the Mayor's journal, a small, tattered book, leather bound. The leather still had the former owner's blood on it...

"You see..." The Man paused to sigh as he composed himself, very briefly.

"It was his gun, that's what gave him up." He explained, raising his hand with the weapon hanging off of it by its Trigger Guard, letting it hang loosely. The gun was a revolver, fancy one to. Or at least well made, it was like the one that that guy... Dirty Barry or whatever his name was used in that movie.

"This is a colt python, they're very rare, most of them didn't survive the war and those that did are locked away. I'd reckon that there are less than a hundred of them, scattered across the country, they're either very expensive or they're hidden behind dozens of dangerous robots and high tech security doors. Trust me, you won't stumble across one of these by accident, especially when you're a tubby forty five year old man." The Man said, rolling the gun back around his finger and holstering it.

"He got this for selling out the town."

"Wait... You mean the Snatchers gave it to him?"

"I do, yeah. Snatchers... Probably didn't know the value of it. Or maybe they did and wanted to make sure that they bought him out."

"But why? Why not just shoot the asshole and be done with it?" The Merc asked, still not sure if she should believe this story or not, sounded way too... convenient.

"Well, the sheriff was this town's only line of defence. I know they'll have a militia but he's the guy they'll look to for tactics and orders, his journal said that he was going to send key members of the militia, like the Deputy into traps so they'll get killed off. He'd leave the morning of the attack, so they wouldn't have time to come up with a new plan. That, combined with his sudden disappearance, which would look like a bail, rather than a betrayal and his people would have no moral. The war would be over before it began, the Raiders take this place with minimal casualties on both sides, which is what they want really.

Sure they go on like they bathe in children's blood and drink it like wine but in truth? Nobody likes killing and fewer people like the risk of being killed themselves. These people want to scare, not kill, that's why they went for bribery and not butchery.

I've seen gangs that would've levelled this place. These guys aren't one of them, they're more diplomatic and organised, more discrete. That means that they won't be too hard to repel."

"Well, not bad." The Mercenary said, lowering her weapon.

"But... I've still been hired to get you out of this barn, I'll drag your bloody, bullet riddled corpse out if necessary."

"Which it isn't... I'm not planning on retiring here lady, I'm here to kill those Raiders." The Wastelander said.

"I have a plan, once they attack, I'm going to repel them and get out of here, I'm... sort of like a mercenary myself, only I don't ask for money."

"So you're crazy then?"

The Man laughed, faintly with a huge grin on his face.

"Yes I am."

"Right, well, crazy guy. This 'plan' of yours? It'd better be good..."

"It's... simple but I think it'll work." He said, stepping up and wandering over to a nearby table, where a minigun lay across it. The minigun was battered and rustic, it looked like shit...

The gun strangely had 'Wailin' Jenny' written across the casing, she presumed that this was the weapon's name...

"This yours?" She asked, glancing up to the Wastelander, who shook his head with a smile.

"Nope, it's the town's. Found it in here but I figured that they wouldn't mind me giving her a tune up. She was in worse condition when I found her but so far, all I have to do is unclog one of the rotating barrels and we're good to go."

He paused, sighing heavily before glancing over to her.

"Almost..."

"Almost? As in..."

"As in, there's one thing that this gun needs in order to work. Ammo."

"You're... shitting me? You didn't think to check that before you started working on it?"

"I **did** check it but the ammunition cache isn't even half full, that means this thing will be done with, after firing 50 rounds."

"So it's... useless then?"

"No, 50 rounds is still something but it won't quell and army. I have 20 odd .44 rounds, so that's 70 but we'll need more than that if we're going up against a clan of Raiders. Fortunately, I know where we can get some more." He said, glancing over to the journal.

"In the early entries, the Sheriff goes on about an old military bunker, which is where they found Jenny. He also said that three out of five people returned from their little expedition out there and that a rather pissed off sentry gun pasted the rest. My guess is that more ammunition lies deeper inside that place, all we have to do is take out the sentry bot."

"What... You're saying that we should go up against a sentry bot?" Raine asked, sounding like she'd never heard anything so ridiculous in her life, though the man shook his head, to assure her.

"No, I'm saying that **you** need go up against the sentry bot. I've got to work on the minigun remember? I mean, if I could go down there, I would but I can't be in two places at once."

"Shit, well, what am I supposed to kill it with, a few shotgun shells a few 9mm rounds?"

"You're always welcome to take my 9mm rounds, the gun's jammed anyway." The Wastelander shrugged as he bent down and eyed inside the minigun's barrel, shining a glowing light in there, coming from his wrist. This got Raine's suspicion as attached to his left arm was a pipboy...

"You Vault Army?"

The Man chuckled, shaking his head.

"Nah, can't say I am. Not from around these parts..." He said, looking back to her and gesturing to the large bulk in her sleeve.

"That where you got yours from?"

Raine looked down to it, almost like she was ashamed of it, like it was some sort of cancerous growth...

"Yeah..."

"Well, either way, neither of us are now, right?" He said, giving her a smirk.

"Anyway, we need to get to work. Here." As he spoke, he tossed her a small grenade, it had a strange top on it, like a sort of ring.

"A grenade?"

"A pulse grenade, should fry that thing's circuitry, if it were a lesser robot, it'd kill it completely but sadly, I think it'd just give you an edge.

Also, don't worry about it hurting you, it's not an improvised one so if you're within the blast radius, it'll just sting a little and your hair will go a little spikey but apart from that? You should be fine."

"Erm... Thanks I guess." She murmured, clipping the grenade to her belt, stepping on over to the door, she placed her hand on it before glancing back, tilting her head.

"Never got your name..."

The man continued to work on the minigun, falling silent for the first time since she'd met him for a brief moment before he answered.

"Name's Wild Bill."

This got a funny look from Raine but if that was his name, that was his name. She shrugged and stepped out, leaving 'Bill' to it.

It took Raine a good half hour to find the bunker, at one point she considered turning back but eventually she managed to find it. It was weird how close it was to the town, yet nobody knew where it was. People mustn't leave this place as much as they'd like to...

She activated the door, that groaned loudly as the shutters came down, opening the way for her. Before her stood some stairs that descended into a dimly lit hallway, leading down towards the old military base. She took a few steps down, somewhat ready for the unexpected, though she couldn't have been ready for this...

She quickly came face to face with the sentry bot as she reached the last step, with a hastened gasp she fired her shotgun, due to the fact that she'd lost her footing, due to the shock, the blast knocked her back, straight on her ass, her tail-bone struck one of the concrete steps, sending a shooting paint up her spine.

Raine Groaned in both pain and frustration, throwing her head back before remembering where she was. She shook her head, furiously and readied her pulse grenade, looking up to see that the sentry bot was now lay on its back, sprawled out across the floor...

She furrowed her brow as she rose to her feet, hand at the ready in case the pulse grenade needed to be activated. Slowly, she crept towards it, looking down on the lifeless machine...

A prod with her toe confirmed it, the robot was bricked, though it looked like it had been dead for some time, due to the rust on it. The bullets in its chest probably didn't help things but the cause of malfunction was seemingly done through several heavy blows to the body as well as dozens of smaller bullet holes, done by a smaller calibre weapon.

The Mercenary slowly stood up, looking into the hallway as she raised her weapon, stepping deeper inside. The door was already opened, she glanced down and noticed several scuff marks along the floor, hinting at the possibility that something had been dragged along, something very heavy. Needless to say, she feared the worst...

As she stepped into the room, she noticed that two lockers stood before her, both of which had had their doors ripped off and had been stripped bare. She sighed heavily, hanging her head and shaking it, someone had beaten her to it and she had a hunch who. Obviously there was only one place where it was possible to get a hold of a Colt Python in this region and it was here. They must have beaten both her and Wild Bill to the punch.

Raine furiously shook her head as she turned back, she couldn't imagine that this was the news that 'Wild Bill' would want to hear but... it was something.

As she walked out of the room, her foot caught he Sentry Bot's head, causing her to stumble forward. She tutted and looked back at the machine, the one that had caused her so much trouble. She growled and kicked the tin can, causing it to rattle, furiously with a loud clunk, followed by a small 'chink.'

It was an odd sound, it warranted some investigation, so Raine stepped around its head and looked down at the sound's source. There, by the machine's arm, lay several bullets, scattered by its side. She crouched down and leaned over, picking on of them up and examining it, looking curiously at them as she picked one of them up, examining it. 5MM round, the same kind that can be found in a minigun...

She looked down, noticing that the arm was leaking these bullets as it previously fired them out of the arm mounted Gatling gun. It would seem that the Snatchers weren't smart enough to think to take the ammunition from the Sentry bot...

Raine took a hold of the robots arm, lifting it up to the ceiling before she began tugging at it, furiously. She cried out as she felt the resistance take its toll on her muscles as the arm eventually gave way and tore off, clunking loudly as she stumbled back and dozens of rounds fell to the floor, chinking on impact like rain drops.

She quickly retrieved them, knowing that she didn't exactly have time to waste, she just hoped that it would be enough...

'Wild Bill' was still working on the minigun, from the looks of things he had finished some time ago as he had just finished welding the minigun's barrels onto the body of the weapon. Raine stepped in behind him, holding a small sack, which she tossed onto the table.

"That's all I could get... Seems our friends beat us to it, the armoury was picked clean but they left some rounds in that dead Sentry bot." She explained, placing the pulse grenade on the table.

"At least they did the hard part for us, right?"

Wild Bill sighed, hanging his head and lightly shaking it but he eventually managed to nod.

"It'll do, I guess... How much is in there, like... fifty rounds?"

"More like thirty..." Raine corrected him, sounding just as disappointed as he was.

"Better than nothing but not far from it."

"We'll have to make each shot count, too bad I'm shit with those things."

"I... Could say the same." The Mercenary sighed, folding her arms and veering off to the right.

"The weight always made it difficult to aim."

As she looked over to the right, she noticed a suit of power armour beside her, a suit of T-51, it's left arm and right leg were missing but it was otherwise in decent shape...

"This yours?" She asked, stepping over to it.

"Mmhmm... It's the only thing I was able to take with me, from back home."

Raine nodded and knelt down, dragging her fingers across the exposed frame.

"Mind if I ask what happened?"

The man shrugged, shoving a screwdriver into one of his components, the sounds of the workbench made for some good ambience.

"Picked a fight with some bad folks, got a few people killed... The survivors saw me as a liability, so I left."

"Ouch... Sorry." Raine said, looking back to the armour before rising up to her feet again, staring the armour right in the faceplate.

"What about you? What made you leave the... Vault Army?"

Raine glanced over to the Wastelander, normally she'd tell him to mind his own fucking business but, then again, she did ask first...

"I... Had a clash with Jackson... I used to be one of his best soldiers but... I couldn't live with myself after some of the shit he made me do, I left, figured I'd rather have a life where I picked and chose my orders, no matter how hard it was."

Wild Bill nodded, going back to his work on the components.

"I know that feeling..." He said, tossing some useless part away.

"I was in an army to... It was... A while ago and I was younger, more... impressionable. They bigged me up and turned me into a killing machine."

"You were with the Brotherhood, right? The T-51? Only they wear that, Enclave wear X series..."

"Yeah... Though I didn't get that T-51 from them, I found it, on the road. I had the frame and the helmet from back home but the rest of the armour I found in an old bunker before I even reached the Cajun Wasteland. It was heavily guarded but... Nothing I couldn't handle."

Rained couldn't help but smile at that, she liked confident people, though she somehow got the impression that he was so confident that such things were trivial to him...

"How far have you come?"

"Since what?" Wild Bill asked, smashing a hammer down on a part to force it into place.

"The Beginning..."

Wild Bill paused, he then went on to fit a piece into place before he proceeded to speak again...

"I've come a long way, of course, you travel pretty quickly when you're moving vertically... Downward that is. Every time I think that I can't get any lower, I fall to a whole new depth of low."

"You mean, like... When you were banished?"

"Mmhmm..." Wild Bill murmured, putting the part into place with a heavy shove before wiping his brow with his sleeve.

"Sounds lonely..."

He shook his head, with a faint laugh, looking up to her with a grin.

"It's not lonely, not with people like you making my life a little more interesting each day." He said, slamming the weapon shut and stepping around it.

"Right then, we've got a few hours before nightfall... You should probably get some rest, stock up on supplies and all that. I've... Got some work to do on my Power Armour."

"Alright... Guess I could use a drink or three..."

"Yeah... But don't get drunk, I need you at your best tomorrow." Wild Bill said, turning back to his power armour and kneeling beside it with a blow torch, slowly placing a welding mask over his face.

"So you need me drunk then?" The Merc asked, with a smirk, getting Bill to shake his head, though it was difficult to tell what his expression was. Raine decided to leave him to it, she sighed and stepped on over to the door, wandering outside.

By this time tomorrow, she'd bave a pocket full of caps and would be on the road back to Paris... So long as Wild Bill knew what the fuck he was doing...

Morning seemed to come within the blink of an eye, at dawn, Raine rolled out of bed and stretched, shaking her head furiously as she staggered out of her room. The tavern wasn't an inn but considering the service that she was doing for the town, they offered her one. They wanted her at her best for the up and coming fight.

Obviously the townsfolk were concerned that no gunshots were heard in the barn. For all they knew, Wild Bill was still the crazy bastard that murdered their Sheriff... To be honest, he was a crazy bastard and he did murder their sheriff, so they weren't entirely wrong.

She stepped on over to the door, slowly pushing it open as she shuffled inside, peering around the corner to see that Wild Bill was already suited up, she couldn't help but smirk. There was something about seeing someone in Power Armour that made her feel safe, an indestructible tin man stood by her side...

Made her understand how blind the people of the old world were to their problems...

"Look at you." She said, stepping upwards and looking over to the hopper, the Large frog just stared back as its chest expanded into it's large bubble.

 _ **'Ribbet'**_

"All dressed up and nowhere to go..."

The Steel Titan turned back, glancing her over, somehow she looked a lot less impressive.

"You ready?"

This got a shrug out of Montoya, prompting her to fold her arms as she veered off to the right.

"Ready as I'll ever be..."

"Right..." Wild Bill paused and took up his minigun, grappling its handle as he got it ready, giving her a nod.

"Alright, I've done some thinking on the revised plan and... Well, here's what I got..."

Several hours passed as the townsfolk got into position, it took a lot longer than she'd hoped for Raine to get everyone together, to hear the revised plan and even longer to explain the concept of Wild Bill helping them but they thankfully trusted her judgement...

With three teams, ready to run into their allotted traps, now all that was left was for Raine to start the fight and for the Snatchers to show up for it. The Mercenary sighed heavily and swirled her rifle around, bouncing it against her knees as she did a few stretches. It had been a while since she had prepared for a battle of this magnitude.

It seemed like they weren't going to show up for a while, though they eventually did, slowly skulking over the hill. Perhaps they sensed that something was wrong and held back...

Five large men walked towards her, adorned in various clumps of metal and leather that served as their armour. It was... surprisingly effective or at least it appeared to be...

The man at the center of them stuck out like a sore thumb, he was a lot shorter for a starter, being at around average height. He had his hair combed over and wore more elegant leathers, a 9mm pistol hung from his hip and it slowly swayed from side to side in time with his swagger.

Raine kept her gaze firmly on the approaching Snatchers, the middle one caught her eye and smirked at her, his smile just made her feet uneasy...

"Say doll..." He said as the group came to a stop, he dusted his hands off as he spoke.

"Can't say I saw you here, last time me and my boys rolled into town..."

"Probably because I wasn't here, just like you shouldn't be..."

"Ha, cute baby, real cute that you tell me and my boys what to do... But sadly, that's not how it works." He slowly paced around her, whilst he did this, his 'boys' raised their weapons and kept them pinned on Raine.

"Y'see... There's a thing call the food chain, lions don't take orders from gazelles, now do they?" He asked, with a dark chuckle, getting a confused look from Raine.

 _What the fuck is a gazelle?_

"No, which is why these gazelles called me in, I'm... I'm a couger."

"Oh, I'd say, rawr..." The Leather-clad ringleader say, purring like a cat before chuckling to himself, getting a laugh out of his comrades, again... Raine didn't get it.

"I get what you're sayin' though, so you're sayin' that **you** call dibs on these gazelles, that they're... **your** gazelles. That you'd be willing to fight us to the death for them? Again, cute but... You can do shit to us on your own baby and your gazelles are going to be more like sheep, when they run into our little traps."

"Heh... You're also pretty cute." Raine said, giving him an amused smile, getting the Snatcher to stop and run his hand through his heavily waxed hair.

"Oh?" He asked, somewhat flirtatiously.

"How so?"

Raine shrugged, bringing up her shotgun.

"For assuming that I'm alone..."

As she spoke the doors to the barn splintered as the mechanical giant stormed out, the spool on his gattling gun wailed like crazy before it began spitting bullets in every conceivable direction. The closest snatchers were turned to paste by the assault and the dapper ringleader was forced to throw himself to the ground. Raine drew her shotgun and blew the two remaining Raiders away.

"Get 'em boys!" The Ringleader yelled before Raine drove her boot down onto his head. She quickly crammed two more shells into her caravan shotgun before blasting into the small crowd as twenty or so Snatchers came pouring out.

Wild Bill did his best efforts at crowd control, he did a quick sweep, sending an equal amount of what remained of his 5mm rounds spewing across the entrance of the town, injuring several of the raiders before Jenny stopped Wailing. The Minigun was swung around and thrown across the town, hitting an unsuspecting Raider with the force of a car. He then drew his Python from his hip and raised it, firing at the first of the Raiders, he fired shot after shot, hitting every one of them in the head or neck.

Montoya, now down to her pistol, took aim at the Snatchers as well, only she was nowhere near as accurate. It took several shots to hit the chest areas of them from this distance, though her gun was vastly inferior to Wild Bill's.

She heard explosions, coming from the building behind her, though it was somewhat expected, everything was going to plan...

The explosion was followed by another, coming from her left and another, coming from her right. She grinned as she picked up the fallen Snatcher's gun, a high calibre pistol, that also shot .44 rounds, Desert Eagle from the looks of it. She fired shot after shot at the Snatchers as they poured out from inside and behind the buildings, running onto the streets and open firing with the advanced weaponry that the Snatchers took from the bunker. The remaining Snatchers quickly panicked, with no leadership and defeat seeming like the most likely outcome, they bolted, heading back to the wilds.

Thorne's townspeople rushed to the edge of their boarders and continued to fire upon them, hoping to kill as many as they could, rather than let them go. Many believed that they would be back but somehow Raine doubted it, not any time soon.

The dust quickly cleared and the people of Thorne stood at the center of the town, throwing their arms into the air and cheering. Several shots were fired off, hats were thrown and... other things. Raine found it lame but... on some level, she enjoyed it. She'd honestly never seen so man people happy to be alive. He smile quickly fell onto Wild Bill, who had seemingly vanished from his spot in front of the barn, he had already began walking down the path out of town, only stopping to loot the corpses of the fallen.

Raine sighed and jogged on after him, sprinting to get in front of him.

"Hey, wait a second big guy? You... bailing already?" She asked as Wild Bill ransacked a corpse and tossed it to one side, picking up the 5mm rounds that fell out of its pockets as he jammed it into the Assault Carbine Rifle that the Snatcher had dropped.

"Yep, town's safe and I have no reason to be here so..." He paused, looking up to her.

"I should... Probably have thanked you before I left for... getting the Ammo for that gun. I didn't think it would but it made quite a bit of difference."

"Yeah, you should." Raine said, giving him a smirk.

"And you should also come back with me so that Deputy Joel can give you a reward."

Wild Bill scoffed at that, looking back onto the horizon through the black slit across his eyes.

"I... Told you, I don't do this for reward. I do it, because I want to."

Raine paused, narrowing her eyes as she folded her arms, eventually giving up and blinking a few times as she shook her head.

"You **are** crazy... Guess you live up to your name, Wild Bill."

"I would, if it was my name." He said, glancing back to her, though she couldn't see his face, she could tell that he was smiling at her.

"I'm Denis, it's... Good to finally meet you." He said, sounding a little more relieved, like he'd stopped holding his breath.

"Denis huh? I have to admit, it's just a tad less impressive than 'Wild Bill.'" She admitted, with a chuckle.

"Why the name?"

"To keep myself safe." He said, as if it was obvious, glancing off to the horizon again, like he had somewhere to be. This just got Raine even more suspicious as she furrowed her brow, jerking her head to the side a bit as one eyebrow slowly arched.

"From who?"

The Wastelander paused, he said nothing as he looked out, onto the horizon, his head hung for a brief moment before he went on walking.

"Myself..." He finally said, slowly walking away from her, the Mercenary somewhat gave up and silently watched as he walked towards the sunset, ready to move on and help another town, if they wanted him to or not...

Raine stepped back into town, there a large crowd gathered around, with Deputy Joel standing behind them all, seemingly waiting for her. He approached the Mercenary with a grin, seeming a lot more... relaxed than he was before.

"Hey, thought you'd left for a moment. I was... kinda hoping that you've done this out of the kindness of your heart but..." He chuckled, drawing a small bag from his belt and passing it to her.

"Here, this should cover it. 400 caps, plus 200 caps worth of chems. Figured it was worth it for all of the lives you saved today." The Deputy Said, giving her a smile, one that she was able to return for once.

"Thanks, seems you got a few decent weapons out of the deal as well." Raine smirked, glancing over to the Assault Rifle butt, jutting out of his shoulder and getting an enthusiastic nod back.

"Aye, if these sons of bitches did one thing right, it was raidin' that armoury for us. Saved us the job of having to fight that Sentry Bot ourselves."

"Yep and they were nice enough to leave you some bullets, to shoot back at them." Raine smirked, looking over to the crowd and prompting Joel to look back over his shoulder before turning his attention back to Raine.

"It's... Their leader, we're not too sure what to do with him."

The Deputy lead Raine over to the crowd, who slowly parted like the ocean in front of Moses for them as they marched over to the unconscious man at he center of the ring of people.

"So erm... What'll happen to him?" Raine asked, not taking her eyes off of the man's unconscious form. Joel just hook his head with a heavy sigh, seeming a little more stressed than before...

"We were going to put him on trial, sentence him and then, depending on how he pleas and how regretful he is, we'll..." That was as far as Joel got before a gunshot erupted, Raine callously shot at his head, causing it to explode like a water melon as his face and top half of his cranium flew off into a bloody mess, leaving a bubbling mess of skull, brain and teeth floating in what remained of his head. Several townspeople gasped, gagged, hurled and one even fainted, it was glorious from Raine's perspective.

"Jesus **Christ,** Raine!" Joel screeched, looking back over to her.

"Sure, yeah, we could just shoot him like a fuckin' Dog!" He snapped at her, getting a shrug before she drew a cigarette out from her back pocket and lit it, seemingly not bothered about what she had just done.

"Seems like the best way to me." She shrugged, taking a drag and blowing the smoke into the air.

"Besides... I owed him some payback for calling me 'Doll.'" She said, realising that her welcome had officially been worn out, prompting her to flick the cigarette down onto the dead Snatcher's corpse before she shrugged and walked away.

"G'luck Joel!" She called as she walked away, chuckling softly to herself, with that fiasco dealt with, she could look forward to another weekend of hard liquor and maybe a decent looking man...

Raine's weekend went by in a blur, finding herself penniless again by monday morning. As she lay there, recovering from a raging hangover, her mind raced back to that baking hot afternoon...

That man, in his T-51b Power Armour, the accomplishments he'd made, the roads he'd travelled... The lives he'd saved without even asking for thanks. She stopped to pause, drawing her 'Gator Scale' from her pocket and holding it up, smiling at it. Maybe, just maybe, if she worked at it she could build a better reputation for herself and maybe then she wouldn't need to rely on a spray painted Scaletail scale to speak for her.

She sighed heavily and closed her hand around it, lowering it back behind her head.

" _Time to make a change..."_ She thought to herself, with a heavy sigh as she closed her eyes and a smile grew across her lips...

" _ **It won't be easy..."**_

" _Heh, the only thing easy about the Big Easy?_

 _Is it's name..."_


End file.
